Kazuma Kiryu's career has essentially been a series of attempts to retire which all failed. I already know he's in the next one so evidently this isn't an exception, but it was still meant to be the last game with him as the main character. My assumption is that this would be a big sendoff for everyone: a big treadmill of old pals retiring and leaving things to a new generation. The Florist? Komeki? Sure, heck yeah, bring all those jokers by for a conclusion.
And then that's not what happened! The story instead focuses really narrowly on Kiryu and his found family, old and new. They managed to make a dad game that wasn't just about how hard it is to be a shitty father who hates his kids and abuses them. Amazing. Truly unheard of in the gaming industry. I think a lot of people were not happy that the "main" extended cast of Haruka, Daigo, Majima and Saejima spend most of the game incapacitated. I understand that. I too wanted Majima to show up just like old times and say the thing. I did. But the game is really still about them through a certain lense, and that's interesting. After 5 was a big bloated mess, 6 is scaled way down to make room for a more personal story. Not really a small story, but a personal one.
Just to get the like, game stuff out of the way, I had some mixed feelings on the new engine. It was a bit physics-y at times, making everything feel kinda weightless. But it's nice to get a closer look at some of these spaces we've spent 6 previous games in. I felt that there was less variety in the fighting, but I'm not sure that matters. Weapons seemed more important. The experience system could be interesting but almost everything requires every type, and the green "technique" experience is the rarest, at least with how I played, so it was really just about that one type rather than five. Maybe Kiwami 2 fixes it a little?
So anyway, it's about Family. It's about shitty dads and why they're shitty. It's about how a dad doesn't have to be blood related, but blood is still powerful, but it also isn't enough. Anyone can be a dad, says Yakuza. Dad is a state of mind. But anyone can fuck it up, too. Blood and love and dedication can't do it alone. In the end, I saw that the characters who spent the whole game offscreen were kind of there in spirit the whole time, exerting gravity on events, because it was the end of Kiryu's story, and that means the conclusion of his relationships with all of these people. I cried, in the end. This probably isn't my favorite of these games, but the restraint it showed made it stronger overall, not weaker.
Also he punches a shark in this one.
And then that's not what happened! The story instead focuses really narrowly on Kiryu and his found family, old and new. They managed to make a dad game that wasn't just about how hard it is to be a shitty father who hates his kids and abuses them. Amazing. Truly unheard of in the gaming industry. I think a lot of people were not happy that the "main" extended cast of Haruka, Daigo, Majima and Saejima spend most of the game incapacitated. I understand that. I too wanted Majima to show up just like old times and say the thing. I did. But the game is really still about them through a certain lense, and that's interesting. After 5 was a big bloated mess, 6 is scaled way down to make room for a more personal story. Not really a small story, but a personal one.
Just to get the like, game stuff out of the way, I had some mixed feelings on the new engine. It was a bit physics-y at times, making everything feel kinda weightless. But it's nice to get a closer look at some of these spaces we've spent 6 previous games in. I felt that there was less variety in the fighting, but I'm not sure that matters. Weapons seemed more important. The experience system could be interesting but almost everything requires every type, and the green "technique" experience is the rarest, at least with how I played, so it was really just about that one type rather than five. Maybe Kiwami 2 fixes it a little?
So anyway, it's about Family. It's about shitty dads and why they're shitty. It's about how a dad doesn't have to be blood related, but blood is still powerful, but it also isn't enough. Anyone can be a dad, says Yakuza. Dad is a state of mind. But anyone can fuck it up, too. Blood and love and dedication can't do it alone. In the end, I saw that the characters who spent the whole game offscreen were kind of there in spirit the whole time, exerting gravity on events, because it was the end of Kiryu's story, and that means the conclusion of his relationships with all of these people. I cried, in the end. This probably isn't my favorite of these games, but the restraint it showed made it stronger overall, not weaker.
Also he punches a shark in this one.